SPIRITED underdogs Altona City took the challenge right up to the high-flying Fawkner Blues to extract a valuable point from a 2-2 draw on the road in the Football Federation Victoria men’s state league2 north-west at Clifton Park on Saturday.
The relegation-threatened City held an unlikely 2-0 lead after just 30minutes, but try as it might it couldn’t hold on and had to settle for a well-earned share of the points in a pulsating finish.
City coach Adrian Denys told the Weekly he was proud of the efforts of his players to claim a draw, having seen them reduced to 10 men with 25 minutes to go after Stuart Houston was shown a red card for a professional foul in the penalty area, which led to the Blues’ equalising goal.
Denys had no qualms about the referee’s decision to award a penalty and send Houston off for an early shower.
A clear foul was committed in a goalscoring position, giving the referee no option but to act.
“It wasn’t a vindictive tackle,” he said, “but it was one of those last-man challenges. It was a fair card and fair decision.”
The Blues spent the remaining minutes bombarding the goalmouth. Time and again, they were repelled by City goalkeeper Frano Saric.
“He was terrific,” Denys said. “They peppered him with shots and put him under a lot of pressure, but he was the best player on the park.”
City was in dreamland at the half-hour mark. It got the go-ahead goal in the 15th minute from Matthew Mackay, followed by another in the 30th from rookie sensation Darcey Den Ouden. Just 16, Den Ouden has scored three goals in the past three matches, an indication of City’s youth policy starting to pay dividends. Denys said he would keep the faith with his young players and was “100per cent confident” they would steer City away from last place into safety.
“We’ll persevere and keep working on our game. If we can perform like that every week, we should be OK.”
SCORES:
SL1: North Geelong Warriors 1 Altona Magic 1
SL2: Fawkner Blues 2 Altona City 2; Altona East Phoenix 2 Keilor Park 1
SL3: Whittlesea United 2 Williamstown 1; Yarraville Glory 1 Geelong 4
PL1: Northern Falcons 2 Maribyrnong Greens 2
PL2: Laverton Park 2 Brunswick Zebras 0
PL3: Melbourne City 1 Balmoral 1
MML: Altona North 5 Prahran 1
WSL1: Altona City 1 South Springvale 0
FFV Knockout Cup: Dandenong Thunder 4 Altona Magic 0
